{"product_id":"a-new-map-of-georgia-with-part-of-carolina-florida-and-louisiana-bowen-1748","title":"1748 A New Map of Georgia, with Part of Carolina, Florida and Louisiana. Drawn from Original Draughts, assisted by the most approved Maps and Charts.","description":"\u003cp\u003eOne of the most significant maps of colonial Georgia and the first large-scale printed map specifically devoted to the colony, Emanuel Bowen's remarkable 1748 map presents the young colony at the center of Britain's sweeping territorial ambitions, while documenting the Native nations, towns, and alliances that shaped the American Southeast.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOnly fifteen years had passed since the founding of Georgia when Bowen, Geographer to King George II, created this extraordinarily detailed picture of a region contested by Britain, France, and Spain. Appearing in London in John Harris's Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca, the map reaches from Charleston and Cape Canaveral westward beyond the Mississippi River.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eGeorgia at the Crossroads of Three Empires\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGeorgia occupied a precarious position between Britain's established colonies, Spanish Florida to the south and French Louisiana to the west, and one of its purposes was to strengthen Britain's vulnerable southern frontier. Bowen makes this rivalry remarkably tangible by identifying the forts and settlements of all three European powers. British defenses guard the Georgia coast, Spanish St. Augustine anchors Florida, while Fort Rosalie, New Orleans, Fort St. Louis, and other French positions extend along the Mississippi and Gulf Coast. Rather than presenting neat political boundaries, Bowen depicts a landscape in which British, French, and Spanish claims overlapped and competed for control.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBowen makes an especially bold territorial statement through the simple placement of the colony's name. GEORGIA stretches almost completely across the map, with its enormous first “G” positioned west of the Mississippi River, deep within territory claimed and actively occupied by France. The effect is particularly revealing because Bowen simultaneously identifies French forts and settlements within this supposedly Georgian landscape. Coming from a cartographer who prominently identifies himself as “Geographer to his Majesty,” the typography provides a subtle but powerful assertion of Britain's expansive interpretation of Georgia's charter and its ambitions in the continental interior.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eSavannah, Forts, and the Emerging Georgia Coast\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlong the Atlantic seaboard, the map records the beginnings of Georgia's actual colonial foothold. Savannah, founded by James Oglethorpe only fifteen years before the map appeared, is prominently identified on the Savannah River, surrounded by the islands, sounds, rivers, settlements, and coastal approaches upon which the colony depended. Farther south, Fort Frederica on St. Simons Island, Fort St. Andrews on Cumberland Island, and Fort William near the entrance to Amelia Island formed part of Britain's defensive network against Spanish Florida. Their appearance alongside Spanish and French fortifications elsewhere on the map emphasizes how thoroughly militarized the eighteenth-century Southeast had become.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eNative Nations and the Contest for the Southeast\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEuropean claims covered the map, but much of the territory itself remained controlled by Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Yamacraw, Natchez, and other Indigenous peoples. Bowen records numerous Native towns and villages, territories, trails, and waterways, along with revealing notes concerning their political and military relationships. Near the center of the map he states that the Cherokee, Creek, and Chickasaw assisted General Oglethorpe against the Spanish, illustrating how dependent Britain's position in Georgia was upon Native alliances. Other communities are identified according to their relationships with the French, providing an unusually detailed picture of the Indigenous political geography underlying European imperial claims.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe western portion offers an especially vivid example of that struggle. Near the Mississippi, Bowen marks Fort Rosalie and the former Natchez settlements with the remarkable annotation “Nautches lately destroyed by the French,” recording the aftermath of the Natchez War of 1729–1731. Farther south appear New Orleans and other French settlements and military positions. These details transform the map into more than a record of colonial boundaries: they document the conflicts among Native nations and European powers that determined who actually controlled the interior of North America.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBowen states in the title that his map was drawn from “Original Draughts, assisted by the most approved Maps and Charts,” bringing together some of the best geographical intelligence available during Georgia's formative years. Its importance endured long beyond the colonial period; an example was introduced as cartographic evidence during the 1981 U.S. Supreme Court boundary dispute between Georgia and South Carolina. With its early depiction of Savannah and Georgia's coastal defenses, extraordinary record of Native American geography, French and Spanish military presence, and audacious portrayal of Britain's western claims, Bowen's map provides an exceptional window into the struggle for the American Southeast at the middle of the eighteenth century.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"New World Cartographic","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43743242584125,"sku":"13408","price":3400.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0390\/9705\/files\/13408a-new-map-of-georgia-with-part-of-carolina-florida-and-louisiana-bowen-1748.jpg?v=1790796555","url":"https:\/\/nwcartographic.com\/products\/a-new-map-of-georgia-with-part-of-carolina-florida-and-louisiana-bowen-1748","provider":"New World Cartographic","version":"1.0","type":"link"}